In the current realm of digital communication, users share information they consider important over networks such as the Internet, using published content such as wikis, blogs, social networking and other network site content publication forums. Unfortunately, digital content can include valuable as well as biased, false and demagogic information.
As such, computer networks have become a familiar way of acquiring and sharing information that also allows content owners and network users to contribute and express themselves. Thus, information providers (e.g. Web site owners) and information seekers (e.g. Web site users) will rely more and more on content available over networks, and therefore the ability to provide as well as to access trusted network content will become even more essential.
Trustworthiness of network content, as well as access to content via network navigation tools, e.g. Web browsers in the case of the Internet, refers to the believability and trustworthiness of a content/navigation tool source. In the case of network trustworthiness, it refers to the trustworthiness of the content available on the network. Network content and network document (e.g. page) navigation tools can take many forms including text, sounds, videos, and images as well as hyperlinks, drop down menus, etc.
It is a disadvantage with the current structure of network documents that multimedia and/or navigational tools encountered by the network user can unknowingly include false or otherwise malicious content. While it is true that network users and content providers alike enjoy the lower cost and increased access to information provided by the current world of interconnected network documents, i.e. enabled users to access content from a number of deemed appropriate sources including Websites, blogs, e-news, wikis, e-books, e-libraries and e-journals, what bears important consideration is whether the vast amount of network information provided and accessed can be relied upon to be trustworthy. As such, it can be very difficult for a typical network user to adequately verify given information without any prior knowledge, and the same is true for content providers in being able to prove to the network users that the information published is accurate and deemed as trustworthy.